RECENT FACTS. 44J 



veliicles. Eecent experiments made by the State Agricultural Society 

 have sliown that, contrary to a prevalent impression, the climate is not 

 nnftivorable to the growtii of hard-wood timber. 



Trccciilturc in Calijbrnicr. — The legislature of California recently 

 passed an act to encourage the culture of forest and timber trees. It 

 provides for three commissioners, who appoint a State forester at a salary 

 of $175 ]>er mouth. The forester is to collect, exchange, gTow, and im- 

 port seeds and seedlings of forest and timber trees and distribute them 

 gratuitously, is authorized to expend 83,000 yearly for these purposes, 

 and is to be assisted in the distribution by the county supervisors. He 

 is also authorized to expend $3,000 the first year, and afterward $2,000 

 annually, in establishing and maintaining nurseries for rearing trees and 

 acclimatizing foreign plants and trees, and from these nurseries shade- 

 trees are to be furnished for grounds belonging to the State and its 

 counties and cities. The forester is also to diffuse information respect- 

 ing tree-culture. 



Large enterprise in tree-planting. — It is announced thatlMr. S. T. Kelsey 

 has contracted with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Eailroad to 

 plant a quarter-section in trees every ten miles along the line of the 

 road from Atchison to the western line of the State, a distance of 

 about three hundred miles. He is allowed eight years in which to com- 

 plete the work, is to provide the stock, plant and maintain the trees, 

 and is to receive from the road a section of land at each point of plant- 

 ing, including the quarter-section in trees. 



Finc-timher in Eustern Afasmchiiftetts. — Mr. W. D. Philbrick, of Mid- 

 dlesex County, Massachusetts, says that twenty-five years ago, within 

 his recollection, the best clear white pine sold there for $15 per thousand; 

 now it is difficult to find as good a quality at $80 per thousand. 



Destruction of forests in the Northwest. — Mr. Jonathan Periam, of Chi- 

 cago, estimates that 330,000 acres are annually denuded of timber in 

 Northern Michigan and Wisconsin, and Mr. Arthur Bryant estimates 

 the annual area of destruction in the same district with Minnesota 

 joined at 000,000 acres. 



European larch. — Professor James Mathews, of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, who has grown the European larch in Iowa for seventeen years, 

 is led by his experience to doubt the durability of its wood when grown 

 on rich western soils. Authorities indicate a certain coldness of climate 

 and poverty of soil as necessary to the production of this timber in per- 

 fection. 



POULTRY AND EOGS. 



Baisiug poultry in Iowa. — Mrs. D. AV. Gage, near Ames, Iowa, raised in 

 1871 COO chickens, of vrhich about 150 were Brahmas and Iloudans, the 

 rest being half-blood. One Brahma cock, nine months old, weighed llf 

 pounds. The poultry brought at Ames G cents per pound, live weight, 

 while pork brought $3.20 per hundred. Mrs. Gage states that she can 

 raise poultry as cheaply as she can pork, weight for weight, and generally 

 sell for twice as much. As to her method of rearing, for three or four 

 days after hatching, the chickens were fed with hard-boiled eggs and 

 cheese-curd, after which they received mush made from corn-meal and 

 wheat. Mrs. Gage recommends willows planted close as a shelter for 

 fowls ; the leaves also afford them an agreeable food. She finds the 

 Brahmas profitable for market, but for the home-table prefers Houdans. 



Ayleshury duels.— A London journal states that a very largo trade is 

 carried on in Aylesbury and its neighborhood in furnishing young ducks 



